[1] A group of twelve IPCC fourth assessment report (AR4) climate models have Arctic (60N–90N) warmings that are, on average, 1.9 times greater than their global warmings at the time of CO2 doubling in 1%/year CO2 increase experiments. Forcings and feedbacks that impact the warming response are estimated for both Arctic and global regions based on standard model diagnostics. Fitting a zero-dime...

I nterest in the Arctic has grown significantly in recent years. The Arctic environment is unique and highly sensitive to disturbances. Temperatures have already risen twice as quickly in the Arctic as elsewhere on Earth. Glaciers and sea ice are melting more extensively than in the past. This is already putting a great strain on communities and ecosystems. As ice withdraws, technological advan...

Unprecedented warming in the Arctic has led to a dramatic reduction in both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice (Stroeve et al. 2011), opening up opportunities for business in diverse sectors such as fossil fuel and mineral extraction, shipping and tourism (Jung et al. 2016). Industrial activities in the Arctic are expected to be subject to high levels of investment over the coming decad...

Over the past decade, the Arctic region has received increased attention from climate scientists, politicians, and transnational corporations. Human-induced climate change is causing glaciers to recede, resulting in new northern sea passages that are highly sought after by businesses and governments alike. Deeply affected by this increased northern exposure are Arctic Fourth World nations – pol...

Pollution Issues, both issued in 1997, which detailed the unique environmental and health problems facing the Arctic's ecology and populations [see EHP 106:A64-A69 (1998)]. This past May, health and environmental officials, research scientists, medical providers, leaders of indigenous communities, and concerned Arctic citizens met in Anchorage, Alaska, to explore these issues at the Internation...

The authors investigate the response of the Arctic Ocean freshwater budget to changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) using a regional-ocean configuration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology GCM (MITgcm) and carry out several different 10-yr and 30-yr integrations. At /68 (;18 km) resolution the model resolves the major Arctic transport pathways, including Bering Strait and the...

We used data collected across 28 years (1975–2002) to compare how timing of laying and egg size respond to environmental variability in two low-arctic and two higharctic Thick-billed Murre (Uria lomvia) populations. Ice conditions strongly affect food availability to marine birds in the Arctic, and the percentage of the sea’s surface covered by ice within 300 km of the breeding colony varied mo...

Humidity inversions have a high potential importance in the Arctic climate system, especially for cloud formation and maintenance, in wide spatial and temporal scales. Here we investigate the climatology and characteristics of humidity inversions in the Arctic, including their spatial and temporal variability, sensitivity to the methodology applied and differences from the Antarctic humidity in...

The Eurasian basin of the Central Arctic Ocean is nitrogen limited, but little is known about the presence and role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Recent studies have indicated the occurrence of diazotrophs in Arctic coastal waters potentially of riverine origin. Here, we investigated the presence of diazotrophs in ice and surface waters of the Central Arctic Ocean in the summer of 2012. We ident...

Data collected by the International Arctic Buoy Programme from 1979 to 1998 are analyzed to obtain statistics of sea level pressure (SLP) and sea ice motion (SIM). The annual and seasonal mean fields agree with those obtained in previous studies of Arctic climatology. The data show a 3-hPa decrease in decadal mean SLP over the central Arctic Ocean between 1979–88 and 1989–98. This decrease in S...